TY - JOUR
AU - Cutler,David M.
AU - Lleras-Muney,Adriana
TI - Education and Health: Evaluating Theories and Evidence
JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL - No. 12352
PY - 2006
Y2 - July 2006
DO - 10.3386/w12352
UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12352
L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12352.pdf
N1 - Author contact info:
David M. Cutler
Department of Economics
Harvard University
1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/496-5216
Fax: 617/496-8951
E-Mail: dcutler@harvard.edu
Adriana Lleras-Muney
Department of Economics
9373 Bunche Hall
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Tel: 310/825-3925
Fax: NA
E-Mail: alleras@ECON.UCLA.EDU
M2 - featured in NBER digest on 2007-03-01
AB - There is a large and persistent association between education and health. In this paper, we review what is known about this link. We first document the facts about the relationship between education and health. The education %u2018gradient%u2019 is found for both health behaviors and health status, though the former does not fully explain the latter. The effect of education increases with increasing years of education, with no evidence of a sheepskin effect. Nor are there differences between blacks and whites, or men and women. Gradients in behavior are biggest at young ages, and decline after age 50 or 60. We then consider differing reasons why education might be related to health. The obvious economic explanations %u2013 education is related to income or occupational choice %u2013 explain only a part of the education effect. We suggest that increasing levels of education lead to different thinking and decision-making patterns. The monetary value of the return to education in terms of health is perhaps half of the return to education on earnings, so policies that impact educational attainment could have a large effect on population health.
ER -